


Femmexo

by setaxis



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: (sorta) - Freeform, Alternate Universe - MAMA (Music Video), F/F, Genderbending, Nymphs & Dryads, Sky Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 10:05:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3764053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setaxis/pseuds/setaxis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles I wrote for the femmexo bingo challenge (and possibly will include more lady exo drabbles as time goes by)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blind dates

**Author's Note:**

> I thought a lot about which names to use for everyone and this is what I came up with.  
> Kyungsoon: It’s close to his name and means “One who has honour and is gentle and mild” which cracks me up. The first bit yes, but the second bit? You got that wrong, parents.  
> Lay: Ying means clever/eagle. I thought it was closest to ‘talented’ which part of his name means.  
> Luhan: Since Lu is his family name I just changed Han to Hua which means flower (the other choice was Huan which means happiness but I chose flower because reasons – mostly that Lu Hua is not a delicate flower)  
> Tao: Actually Tao is also a girl’s name according to my research (it means peach)  
> Most of the korean ones I really struggled with but these are what I came up with:  
> Joonmyeon: Juhyun  
> Baekhyun: Boyun  
> Chanyeol: Chaeyoung  
> Sehun: Seyeon  
> Minseok: Minseon  
> Jongdae: Jeongah  
> Jongin: Junghee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Lu Han/ Yixing (Lu Hua/Ying)  
> Word count: ~1400 words  
> Warnings: Fluffy, Lu Hua swears a bit  
> Summary: Lu Hua never has any luck with dates so she doesn’t see how this blind date will be any different.  
> Lu Hua does not know how she's reached this point. She's young, she's hot so why does not one of the people she's met want to kiss her?

  
Lu Hua has been on lots of dates. Lots and lots of dates. But none of them seem to want to stay past the first one, which is how she finds herself allowing her bratty junior from the pole-dancing club to set her up with her cousin. On one hand if the girl she's setting Lu Hua up with looks anything like Seyeon Lu Hua will at least have something to look at while the date fails spectacularly. On the other, if she has a personality anything like Seyeon's  _Lu Hua_  might be the one not calling back. (She loves Seyeon, she really does. She just doesn't have the strength to date her. She doesn't know how Junghee does it honestly.)  
  
She looks at her phone impatiently. This girl is thirty minutes late and Lu Hua's coffee is almost gone. She wonders idly what it says about her that she's still here instead of walking out the door and going to punch Seyeon for setting her up with someone who didn't even show. Douchebags the pair of them.  
  
Then suddenly there's a rush of white rushing past her and a girl, breathing hard, plonking herself down into the seat opposite Lu Hua's.  
  
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" She says hurriedly. "I thought Seyeon told me half three but she said half two and oh god I'm so, so, sorry! I wasn't going to stand you up I swear!"  
  
Lu Hua is about to chew her out but she's distracted by the very see-through white blouse her date is wearing - and the very cute bunny-print bra she's wearing underneath it.  
  
"Um..."  
  
Her date notices her staring. She quickly looks down at her top and then straight back up.  
  
"Oh god." She looks horror-struck. "I could have sworn I put a top on underneath this-"  
  
"It's fine," Lu Hua hurriedly assures her. "I don't mind."  
  
"Oh goooood." Her date moans, burying her face in her arms on the table. "I'm sorry I'm sorry, oh god I'm such a mess!"  
  
"A hot mess." Lu Hua mumbles to herself in Chinese. If what she'd caught a glimpse of before is correct a  _very_  hot mess.  
  
"Excuse me?" Her date's head snaps up.  
  
_Oh shit, better keep those thoughts to yourself Lu Hua._  
  
"Nothing." Lu Hua gives her date a strained smile. "I'm Lu Hua, nice to meet you."  
  
"Zhang Ying."  
  
“You’re Chinese.” Lu Hua squeaks.  _Oh shit does that mean she understood me before for the love of God please say no._  
  
Ying looks confused -  _holy fuck she looks cute confused_  - and tugs on her shirt self-consciously. “I thought Seyeon would have told you? I thought that’s why she set us up on this coffee bonding thing?”  
  
_Coffee bonding thing? Does that mean this wasn’t even a date? Lu Hua is going to kill Seyeon the next time she sees her._  
  
“Um, right.” She nods slowly. “That’s why.  _Bonding._ ”  
  
“You’re really cute though.” Ying says earnestly. “The way Seyeon was talking about you I was expecting you to have fangs to something.”  
  
“Thanks? I guess.” Lu Hua deadpans. Ying doesn’t seem to notice though, just gives her a smile that makes her dimples pop out and - _holy Mary Mother of God dimples._  Lu Hua whimpers slightly.  
  
“What did you say?” Ying blinks like a kitten.  
  
“Nothing!” Lu Hua practically screams. “I mean, nothing. I have a hoodie you can borrow if you want?”  
  
Seriously, it’s not freezing but it certainly isn’t warm enough to be wandering around without even a jumper on. Lu Hua is kinda half in awe that this girl doesn’t even seem to feel the cold and half weirded out.  
  
Luckily Ying seems to have forgotten what Lu Hua said earlier in favour of eyeing her hoodie like it is her saviour. She quickly snatches it out of Lu Hua’s hands and pulls it over her head. Lu Hua mourns the loss of the bunny bra, but she does admit she will be slightly more focussed on the conversation now those cute little breasts are out of sight.  
  
“That’s better!” Ying sighs happily and snuggles deeper into Lu Hua’s hoodie. Lu Hua feels something flip over in her chest.  
  
“So you’re from China?” She asks quickly, switching to Chinese.  
  
“Yep!” She beams. “Changsha city!” Oh god, her accent is even cuter in Chinese. Lu Hua has a standard Beijing accent which, while good for giving language lessons to foreigners, getting telephone jobs and sounding a bit stuck up, is actually quite boring. Ying’s accent is different, refreshing.  
  
“I’m from Beijing.” She offers.  
  
“Oh cool! I’ve always wanted to go but somehow I ended up coming to Korea before I went to my own capital – how dumb is that?” Ying giggles. Honest to god giggles. Her dimples pop out, her eyes curve up into crescents and Lu Hua wants to put her fist in her mouth and scream because how is anybody legally allowed to be so, so…  _cute_  and yet Chinese-buddy zone her before they’ve even got anywhere? Lu Hua is an unlucky woman.  
  
“Yep, pretty dumb.” She says without thinking. Her eyes widen in horror. “I mean no. I mean, China is a big place?”  
  
Normally at this point her date would have been edging towards the exit but surprisingly Ying just laughs.  
  
“Do you want another coffee?” She asks, pointing at Lu Hua’s empty cup. Lu Hua let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding and smiles, her first of the date-but-not-a-date-just-two-hot-chinese-girls-chatting-date.  
  
“I’d love one.”  
  
Xxx  
  
Somehow one turns into two, turns into them staying at the café until it’s closing time and it’s dark outside. Lu Hua looks outside mournfully. It looks cold and she doesn’t have the heart to ask Ying to give her her hoodie back.  
  
“This was fun.” Ying grins.  
  
“Definitely.” Lu Hua agrees, honestly surprised at how well the whole thing has gone. Usually she’s put her foot in her mouth a thousand times by now but she’d hardly done it at all today, and even when she did Ying just laughed it off with that adorable sweet laugh of hers and they’d gone right back to talking. It was the best date-not-date she’s ever been on.  
  
She pouts unconsciously. She wants it to have been a date-date, not a Chinese-buddy thing.  
  
“Do you still think I’m hot?” Ying asks out of the blue. Lu Hua promptly chokes on her own saliva.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Earlier, you said I was a  _hot_  mess.”  
  
_Oh god,_  Lu Hua laments, _She heard that?_  
  
Ying’s eyes twinkle mischievously. “I may have lied when I said that Seyeon set us up on Chinese coffee bonding.”  
  
“Guh.” Is Lu Hua’s intelligent response. Ying’s eyes turn amused, then remorseful in a matter of seconds.  
  
“She said you were a bit of a disaster when it came to dating so I thought I’d help you relax a little bit, take the pressure off you know? And that way if you didn’t think it was a date you wouldn’t be obligated to stay or anything.” She lets out a little laugh. “I know I’m a mess.”  
  
Lu Hua can feel her eyes watering as she watches Ying stand there worrying her lip. She’s still in Lu Hua’s hoodie, a little big since Ying is a little shorter, and is tugging the sleeves down her arm nervously. Lu Hua can’t understand why anyone would pass Ying up. She’s hot, she’s insanely sweet considering she’d put a complete stranger’s feeling’s before her own, and super easy to talk to. Lu Hua is only pissed she was late because that’s half an hour more they could have been chatting, laughing about nothing and being dumb.  
  
“Go on a date with me.” She blurts out. “A proper one, where both of us know it’s a date and when it’s happening.”  
  
“Yeah?” Ying says hopefully.  
  
Lu Hua grins. “Hell yeah.”  
  
Xxx  
  
Lu Hua never gets her hoodie back. She doesn’t mind though, purple really is more Ying’s colour than hers and besides, she doesn’t mind it obscuring her view of Ying’s low cut and slightly see through tops anymore. Not when she’s earned the right to see what’s underneath it.  
  
(The bunny bra is still her favourite.)


	2. Time travelling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: None  
> Word Count: ~3000 words  
> Warnings: Mentions of suicide, murder, swearing, dark themes  
> Summary: Tao is a time traveller, but honestly she feels like it’s the most useless superpower ever. But at least she’s using her powers for good.

Honestly, as superhero powers go, time travel is pretty useless. It expends a huge amount of energy to do it and often the result doesn’t really do anything ‘superhero’-y because you can’t go back and change the past without majorly fucking up the future. And the future, well let’s just say that isn’t often the most accurate due to things in the present happening and screwing that up too.  
  
Just thinking of all the assessments she had to do at school where they tried to rank everyone by power and such makes Tao’s teeth grind. She’s never understood how they could possibly compare powers anyway? How can someone like Kyungsoon who’s power is extremely physical ( _you do not want to be on the receiving end of a punch from Kyungsoon_ ) to someone like Juhyun whose powers are entirely emotive ( _she’d always wondered how Juhyun had managed to keep Boyun and Chaeyoung calm all the time. The answer had been she’d cheated with her powers._ )  
  
It was a load of bollocks anyway. The world had become so saturated with people with superpowers over the last couple of years due to genetic experimentation (highly illegal and not recommended) and a higher incidence of nuclear reactor failures. Mutations seemed to be spreading through the population like wildfire. As such, so called superhumans really didn’t lead different lives to the not-so-super humans. They got jobs, cheated a bit with their powers, but generally lead very boring, very not superhero-y lives at all.  
  
Tao is just one of the many boring superheroes. Her power is practically useless anyway, save for being able to recall in graphic detail any embarrassing moment and usually relive it too because she had a terrible tendency to time-walk in her sleep.  
  
Tao is a detective. She is one kickass detective even if she does say so herself. Her power does actually come in handy here, being about to skip back to the time of the crime and investigate events from that stand point (though it does make her very tired). Also, she really does kickass. Fifteen years of wushu training will do that for you.  
  
Currently she’s on one of the most fascinating cases of her career. There’s been a spree of murders in the city – each one committed to the exact same details as the last. Same murder weapon, same M.O., but never the same type of location or victim. There’s been three so far and each victim has been so removed from the other that it’s been impossible to find a common denominator. Even Tao’s power has not been very useful here – the killer seems to be using some sort of time-delay poison which leaves no biological trace which means that he isn’t there at the time of the murder. It is almost impossible to tell how far back Tao would have to go to find the poisoner without an idea of the actual poison so she’s stuck with using grassroots methods and honestly, she’s really enjoying the challenge.  
  
Except her boss has decided this would be the perfect time to saddle her with a newbie. Admittedly, Tao is the only person on the team who doesn’t have a partner. She gets that, she does, but she really does not need to be babysitting some kid right now when she should be out catching the killer.  
  
She goes to the boss’ office in a bit of a mood. She’s got her killer leopard print heels on, the ones that make her feel like a total badass, and she knows that she’s radiating bitch-aura right now, but she can’t bring herself to care. It’s her bosses fault for trying to pawn off this kid on her.  
  
She knocks once, waits for the response and then swans in. The person in the other chair in front of the boss’ desk has their back to her so she can’t see anything but a curtain of rainbow hair. She snorts. Rainbow, really? That can’t be natural.  
  
“Boss, you wanted to see me?” She says curtly.  
  
Minseon waves her to the other seat. “Yes, Tao, I did. Stop pretending you don’t know why you’re here and sit down for the love of god. I don’t have time to waste on your theatrics today.”  
  
Tao sniffs, but slides into the chair nonetheless. “I take it this is my new partner?”  
  
“Yes. Tao, meet Seyeon. She’ll be working with you on the poisoning case.”  
  
The woman turns to her and sticks out her hand. The first thing Tao notices is that Seyeon has a very dour look on her face as if she would rather be anywhere but here. She’s also eyeing Tao’s heels with distain which really, is enough for Tao to dislike her already. What the hell, leopard print is fucking awesome. This girl with her ridiculous hair and ridiculous eyebrows (Tao knows that big brows are in this season but  _seriously_ ) needs to get her fashion straight.  
  
“Huang Tao. Nice to meet you.” She says as she gives Seyeon the weakest, limpest handshake ever.  
  
“Oh Seyeon.” The other woman drawls in a bored tone.  
  
“Right, lovely. Now that you two have met go and catch me some criminals.” Minseon says, shooing them both out of her office. “And Tao?”  
  
“Yes?” Tao calls over her shoulder.  
  
“Play nice.” It’s a warning, not an option.  
  
Tao rolls her eyes. Tao always plays nice. Except for when she doesn’t.  
  
“So, the boss said something about a poisoning?” Seyeon says again, sounding like she’d much rather watch paint dry than hear anything about the case.  
  
“Three.” Tao stresses. “Three poisonings in less than a month. All exactly six days apart, same M.O.. It’s some kind of slow acting toxin, but we can’t tell which. The only symptoms are heart failure and frothing and the mouth and it’s not showing up on any of the tox screens.”  
  
Seyeon hums thoughtfully. “Is your office this way? I need to take a look at the case file.”  
  
Tao feels her teeth grind like back when she was in school. “Of course, it’s this way.”  
  
 _Calm, Tao. Do not give in to the urge to be extremely sarcastic to the child. It’s not its fault it doesn’t seem to understand the idea of seniority or the wonders of leopard print. All will come in time._  
  
Xxx  
  
It turns out all does not come it time, except possibly the revealing of Seyeon’s true colours. The kid really is a whiny brat (Tao is only a year older, it turns out, but she swears she doesn’t whine this much. Okay maybe a little to Juhyun unnie, but that’s only for free lunch and hugs.) There really is no limit to the kid’s shamelessness. So far she has flirted with Chaeyoung down in the lab so as to rush through some results. (Actually Chaeyoung is kinda hot once you get past all the talk about various chemicals and the frizzy ginger hair.) She has also managed to wind the secretary, Jungda, round her little finger (Jungda used to be  _Tao’s_  gossip buddy goddammit) and she has actually managed to get Do Kyungsoon to give her a look that isn’t pure hatred. Tao wants to cry. This is not fair!  
  
But she is a grown woman. She is a grown woman with a very important and interesting case to be working on so she fuels her efforts into that instead of mourning her lost spot as maknae of the department she is actually doing something productive. She feels like she’s due a breakthrough. And a murder.  
  
She’d had a vision of it last night – a young man frothing at the mouth on a rollercoaster. She hopes this is one of the ones that’s going to turn out true. According to the schedule they were due another murder tomorrow.  
  
She’s in such a good mood as she dances into the office she walks into her (now shared) office without knocking. Seyeon looks up immediately, guiltily. She has her hand in the drawer of Tao’s desk.  
  
“What the hell are you doing?” Tao spits iciliy.  
  
Seyeon lifts her hands out of the desk in a kind of ‘peace’ gesture. “I was just looking for some staples, boss.”  
  
“They are kept in the stationary cupboard, not my desk.”  
  
“I forgot?” Seyeon smiles.  
  
Tao doesn’t believe that for a minute. She’s tempted to snap back and check out what Seyeon was really doing in her desk but she resists. Seyeon doesn’t know she has a power yet. The only one in the office who does is Minseon, and Tao had made her swear never to tell. It’s not that Tao is ashamed of having a power, but something about time manipulation seems to make people feel nervous, anxious. Uncomfortable. She wants to work with her colleagues without them becoming overly paranoid, thank you.  
  
“Remember next time.” She grumbles, previous good mood gone.  
  
Seyeon sidles back to her own desk, smooth as silk. Tao frowns. She needs to think.  
  
Xxx  
  
Judging by the way she had her hands in Tao’s desk it stands to reason that Seyeon has a power that’s related to touch. Most likely something to do with picking up emotions or thoughts from objects. Possibly something damaging, some kind of poison? She should take something from her desk that she’s sure that Seyeon has touched and sent it discreetly to the labs. She’s sure she’s still Boyun’s favourite.  
  
She doesn’t know anyone who would want to kill her except possibly friends or relatives of the people she’s put behind bars. Honestly she hasn’t put away that many and they weren’t particularly high level criminals, but she doesn’t rule it out just in case.  
  
What she really needs is Seyeon’s file. She’s sure that in there there’ll be a record of her power if she has one, and possibly why she was snooping around in Tao’s desk.  
  
Xxx  
  
A week later Tao catches Seyeon talking about her with Lu Hua. Lu Hua has always been gossipy and has never liked her so she isn’t surprised to see her dragging out all the mistakes she made and talking bad about her but the unsettling thing is how Seyeon laps it up like milk. She listens raptly to Lu Hua like she’s telling her the secrets of the universe, not just how much of an arsehole Tao supposedly is. It doesn’t hurt exactly, but it’s never nice to find someone talking about you behind your back.  
  
Xxx  
  
Something weird is going on here. Tao had noticed in during the first week that Seyeon was super clingy. Every where Tao went, she would go to. At first Tao had dismissed as Seyeon being new and not knowing where anything is, but this is getting ridiculous. It’s been two weeks. They have had two more killings, as the pattern and are still no closer to solving the actual mystery than when Seyeon arrived. Neither of them were the rollercoaster killing, which was also disappointing. Tao had hoped to have solved it by now, or at least have some leads to chase up.  
  
Now it was quite clear from her conversations with Lu Hua that Seyeon really didn’t like her so why on earth would she be acting all clingy unless she wanted to find something out about Tao? She wants some ammunition or something maybe. Honestly Tao is growing tired of it all. Seyeon is so two-faced and that just isn’t how Tao is. This needs to stop.  
  
Xxx  
  
“Seyeon.” Tao calls out to her one day. “Can I talk to you please, in private?”  
  
“Sure. Is it about the murders? Have you made a breakthrough?” Seyeon says, quickly closing the door behind her.  
  
“Not exactly.”  
  
“Okay.” Seyeon looks confused. This seems to be genuine – the other thing Tao has learnt from her observations is that Seyeon is not a very good actress.  
  
“Why were you snooping around in my desk that day, Seyeon?” Tao says bluntly. “And don’t try to sell me some story about staplers.”  
  
“I was just looking for stuff.”  
  
“I’m a detective, Seyeon, I can tell when someone is lying. I can also tell when they are acting suspiciously.”  
  
Seyeon laughs. “How have I been acting suspiciously? I’ve been working on the case, just like we’re supposed to.”  
  
“You follow me around even though it’s clear you don’t like me, why?” Tao asks.  
  
“I like you.” Seyeon stammers.  
  
“Bullshit.” Tao sneers. “You haven’t liked me from day one. You talk shit about me when I’m not around, look at me like I’m a piece of shit left on your shoe. Whatever you think you’re going to find on me you won’t.”  
  
Seyeon’s head snaps up then. “So you admit there’s something to find.”  
  
“Of course not!” Tao says, exasperated. “I have no debts, no sordid past that you can go and gossip to Lu Hua about, so let’s just keep this professional shall we?”  
  
Seyeon looks confused. “Lu Hua? What’s Lu Hua got to do with this?”  
  
Tao is taken aback. “Lu Hua, your buddy. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”  
  
Seyeon tries to smile but Tao can see it’s forced and she goes in for the kill.  
  
“Why are you here, Seyeon, in this precinct? It seems from the work on the toxin that you are more than qualified to become one of the lab guys, so why are you my partner?”  
  
Seyeon says nothing, merely walks to the door and tries to walk out. Tao feels a spike of fury well up in her and she flicks her power into action without even thinking about it. She’s at the door before Seyeon can close it.  
  
“No.” She says firmly. “You aren’t running away. Tell me what you know.”  
  
There’s something in her face or eyes that scares Seyeon, she can see it and she doesn’t understand. She one of the nicest, kindest people she knows, what has she done to deserve this?  
  
“Why are you afraid of me?” She asks, bewildered. “What did I do?”  
  
“Oh god.” Seyeon mutters. “I shouldn’t be here. I never should have come-”  
  
She stops sharply and looks at Tao. “I’m going to tell you something now, because I think that maybe if I do it will somehow change the future and save the five innocent victims that we have seen. I’m not telling you because I like you, and I may live to regret this, but I don’t think you’re a killer so I’m going to take a risk.”  
  
Tao’s thoughts are racing. “A killer?” She repeats dumbly. She’s never killed so much as a fly.  
  
“My name is Oh Seyeon, but I don’t work for Minseon. I work for the government. As soon as this case came up it triggered on our radar that something fishy was happening – the deaths were too perfect, the timing to exact. There should be no way that there is no trace of what’s going on.”  
  
“What does this have to do with me?” Tao whispers.  
  
“It was suggested that one of the ways those deaths could have been executed is someone with the ability to control time.” Seyeon says. Her expression is pained, like she wants to be anywhere but here.  
  
“Like me.”  
  
“Like you.” Seyeon confirmed. “I was asked to come and scope you out, but honestly all I’ve got is that you’re a massive gossip and have an unhealthy love of leopard print.”  
  
Tao’s face lights up with hope. “So you don’t think I did it, right?”  
  
“Honestly?” Seyeon sighs. “I don’t know. I don’t know how else they could have been committed except for time travel and you’re the only one registered in the country. That doesn’t exclude other people but it does mean you’re the first suspect.”  
  
“So what, you’re just going to wait around until… what?”  
  
“Here’s the thing, Tao. I’m not picking anything up from you now, but that doesn’t mean a damn and I’ll tell you why. You’re a time traveller, so you can go anywhere you want. You can plan these murders years apart in real time but come back to commit them every six days. You could snap in ten years time and start your spree but we have  _no way of knowing_.” Seyeon snaps. “It’s the perfect crime because you already have an alibi – your past self.”  
  
“I wouldn’t.” Tao states adamantly.  
  
“Are you sure about that?” Seyeon replies. “Because the future is always uncertain. Shouldn’t you know that better than anyone?”  
  
Tao does. She’s seen things that never come to pass and others so similar but not quite the same. The effect of Chaos, the effect of the butterfly whatever you want to call it. It’s powerful.  
  
Tao knows herself. She doesn’t condone violence. She uses wushu to protect and serve the people, not to hurt. She protects bees from picnickers and refuses to kill ants. She knows that the her right now would no more be able to kill than would a worm be able to fly. But the future her? All the possible versions of her in all the worlds? Could she say that they would be the same?  
  
“No.” She says finally. “I’m not sure.”  
  
 _How do you deal with the fact you might become a murderer in the future? How do you stop it? Or will all the steps that you try to take to prevent it just lead you straight back to the one inevitability?_  
  
Xxx  
  
Three days later Huang Tao is found dead in her apartment.  
  
The murders stop.


	3. Sky Pirates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairings: slight Sehun/Jongin (Seyeon/Junghee)  
> Word count: ~1700  
> Warnings: Pirates, mentions of mutilation  
> Summary: Junghee hates the prisoner on sight – she’s everything Junghee doesn’t like, stuck up, snobby. But is everything as it seems?

The moment Junghee sets eyes on the girl they've kidnapped, she hates her. She’s pale, practically translucent, and looks like she’s never worked a day in her life; her fingers are long and thin and uncalloused. Her hair is long, blonde and, as unkempt as it is from where she’s been tossed around, still annoyingly shiny. But the thing Junghee finds the most detestable of all is how  _bored_  this girl appears to be. She sits where she’s been tied up with her legs and arms crossed and surveys the crew going about their business with an air of complete and utter apathy.  
  
It’s loathsome, honestly.  
  
Junghee wants to tell her that. She would, if she weren’t so sure this girl would laugh at her because a deck hand like Junghee using the words Junghee likes to use? It must surely be like a monkey trying to reproduce the works of Shakespeare to this girl. A joke.  
  
She watches her out of the corner of her eyes as she has to scrub the deck. The girl never even looks her way. It doesn’t surprise Junghee, honestly. She knows her skin is bronzed by hours out on deck in the blazing sun, lips chapped but constantly biting them, fingers rough. She doesn’t have any problem with the way she looks – her body is a testament to her hard work and dedication to her crew – but she is aware that she doesn’t look anything like the people this girl has been brought up to believe to be beautiful. It is no wonder that she doesn’t spare Junghee a second glance.  
  
The prisoner is left tied up there for hours. The captain has some business to attend to, mainly ensuring that they have safely outrun anyone on their tail, and is too preoccupied to really pay attention to their captive. The rest of the crew too, are busy with the running of the ship and storage of their cargo (not including pasty-face), and before they know it the sun has set and they are flying once again by moonlight.  
  
Junghee loves it. To her there is nothing more refreshing than a night breeze ruffling through her cropped hair and the shadows that play along the deck of the ship on a clear night. They have a rotation system, but Junghee will often be found out at night even when she’s supposed to be sleeping, taking in a drink of the cool night air.  
  
She’s doing the same thing tonight when she realises that the prisoner is still there, tied up and silent as ever. She sits as still as a statue. It barely looks like she’s breathing. Her eyes, which from had seemed cold and apathetic, look even bleaker the closer Junghee inches. Dead. She feels like she’s approaching a wild dog – hand outstretched, crouched down in a squat as she edges closer.  
  
“Hey.” She murmurs. “Do you want a drink?”  
  
At first the girl makes no sign of having heard Junghee. Her eyes seemed to be following her movements but slowly, as if in a daze, and Junghee starts to get worried. This delicate flower (no matter how much that idea might make her scoff) had been sitting in the sun all day, no food, no water.  
  
A prisoner is no good to anyone dead.  
  
“Hey!” She tries again, louder. “You want some water.”  
  
The girl blinks slowly and nods. Good. It seems that her wits are not completely addled. Satisfied Junghee runs down to the kitchen area to grab some water and a bit of food. As she has her hand in the jar of hardtacks she hears the boards below her creak.  
  
“What do you think you’re doing.” Says a very annoyed voice from behind her.  
  
“Kyungsoon!” Junghee whirls round and gives her her best winning smiles. “I was just getting some food and water for our prisoner! She hasn’t had any all day and I thought it would be best-”  
  
“Best to what?” Kyungsoon snorts. “Kill her with weevil filled biscuits before we even set out?”  
  
Junghee looks sheepish. “I didn’t want to take any of the main supplies.”  
  
Kyungsoon rolls her eyes at that but busies herself round the kitchen anyway, picking up things she thinks they can spare. “Honestly she’d be better off on something like soup right now but I haven’t the ingredients.”  
  
“Soup? She doesn’t look sick.” Very pale, yes, and extremely thin, but not ill.  
  
Kyungsoon shoots her a look which Junghee can’t interpret. Junghee stands in the kitchen watching Kyungsoon bustle about but she doesn’t explain further, just shoves the softest piece of bread they have into Junghee’s waiting hands and a canteen full of water.  
  
“Junghee.” Kyungsoon says. “Be careful, okay.”  
  
Now Junghee really is confused. Be careful of what? The prisoner is tied up, hand and foot, and she hardly looks like she’s going to be breaking out of those any time soon being as lithe as she is. Even so Junghee can definitely take her in a fight. She’s been brawling since she could walk.  
  
She squats down in front of the girl again, bread outstretched in her hand. There’s a faint spark in those dead eyes, but it’s quickly extinguished, leaving Junghee to wonder whether she ever saw it at all. Cautiously Junghee breaks off a piece and holds it close to the prisoner’s mouth, realising very quickly that the other girl’s hands are tied behind her back.  
  
“Come on,” She says in what she hopes is a soothing manner. “There isn’t anything in it, I promise.”  
  
She takes a piece and pops it in her own mouth, chewing and swallowing exaggeratedly. Then she extends another piece, leaving it close to the other girl’s mouth but not too close. She doesn’t fancy having her fingers bitten today.  
  
Gently, gentily, with a grace that comes from years of having it beaten into you, the captive takes the bread out of Junghee’s hand with her teeth and, tossing her head back like a seagull swallowing a fish, pops it into her mouth. She eats strangely. She tosses her head to one side and then chews for a while before tossing it the other way and chewing for a bit longer. After a while she tosses her head back again and swallows, eerily reminiscent of the pelicans Junghee had seen when they had flown over some island. She gestures her head in the direction of the canteen and Junghee startles. She scrambles to get the lid off and almost drops the entire thing. She curses her clumsy fingers.  
  
There’s a stange sound, like a gurgling laugh, from the girl. It’s more moan than laugh, but her mouth is open in something like a smile. It’s a bit like a maw, gaping and dark and it takes a moment for Junghee to realise what’s wrong. She darts forward while the other girl’s mouth is still open and wedges her fingers in the gap. The other girl lets out a sound of alarm and flails backwards. She bites down on Junghee’s fingers as she does so, but more out of instinct than malice, so Junghee can’t hold it against her.  
  
Junghee herself scrambles back away from the girl, gripping her injured fingers in her other hand. She stares at the other girl in shock, a kind of sick horror falling over her. There’s a miasma in her gut that has started to spiral and swirl incessantly and all at once she’s hit but the realisation she needs to vomit because  _that girl had no tongue._  
  
She’d seen the stump of it as she had stuck her fingers in the other girl’s mouth. It had thrashed around in her mouth like the amputated limb of a Kraken and just remembering it brings the bile rushing up into her mouth. She all but falls to the side of the ship and leans over it, retching violently. Suddenly there’s a hand on her back and Junghee turns to see the captain, Minseon, hand on Junghee’s back but looking back at the prisoner with such pity in her eyes.  
  
Junghee has never seen Minseon pity anyone.  
  
“Are you okay, Junghee?” Minseon asks.  
  
“Yes, Captain.” Junghee replies shakily. Honestly, she’s not sure whether that’s a truth or a lie, but the more she says it the more likely it is to become true, she feels.  
  
Minseon takes the bread out of Junghee’s hand and goes over to where the other girl still sits, silent, tied to the ship. She breaks a piece off and offers it to the prisoner much as Junghee had done earlier. Junghee goes down to sit beside her.  
  
“Her name is Seyeon.” Minseon tells Junghee.  
  
“Seyeon.” Junghee repeats. She notices the girl – Seyeon – perk up a little bit at the sound of her name, but she’s honestly too busy eating to pay much attention.  
  
“Unnie, who did that to her?” Junghee asks, shaken.  
  
“I don’t know.” Minseon says quietly. “She was like this when we found her, and it’s not like she’s going to be telling us what happened anytime soon.”  
  
“Why would they do that? What could she have done-”  
  
“She hasn’t done anything.” Minseok pats Junghee’s thigh comfortingly. “She didn’t do anything, Junghee.”  
  
Junghee sits there for a while, digesting this idea. Junghee has been lucky, she knows. The crew of the EXO are, while not particularly well mannered by landlubber standards, fair pirates. She picked up with them as soon as she left home. She hasn’t known other crews, harsher crews, like some of the others have. Maybe this is what Kyungsoon had meant by be careful.  
  
“Why is she here, captain?” Junghee asks finally. “Why did you capture her?”  
  
It wasn’t a rescue, Junghee can see that much. You don’t keep people you rescue tied up and help captive.  
  
Minseon smiles grimly. “It wasn’t because of who she  _is_  Junghee-ah, you understand?”  
  
Junghee watches Seyeon try to swallow her bread, neck working like a bird swallowing fish and nods faintly.  _Information._  
  
 _If you can’t speak, you can’t spill secrets, can you?_


	4. Nature Spirits/Nymphs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairings: Jongin/Yixing (Junghee/Ying)  
> Word count:~1600 words  
> Warnings: Quite graphic descriptions of the female body but not necessarily particularly sexual, realisation of sexuality  
> Summary: When Junghee is sixteen she runs away to the woods but what she finds is not necessarily an escape but a realisation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The style here is a little bit weird, I was trying something out, please forgive me

When Junghee was sixteen she’d seriously considered running away from home. So seriously that she had taken the bag that she had kept in her room for weeks, packed and ready to go, and had crept out into the woods at the back of her house. It was June, she remembers now, and the night air was warm and balmy against her skin. The air was filled with the sound of crickets chirping from the long grass that grew untamed past where her parents deemed it ‘seemly’ to stop gardening, crickets and the swish of the grass as Junghee pushed through it.  
  
Junghee loved the forest. As a child she had been forbidden from playing in it but her nanny was usually too busy sleeping to really enforce that rule and so she had gone any time she pleased. The forest was cool and inviting and she had often played pretend there under the bows of the ancient trees. They were her friends. Even so, this time there was no time to stop and play. She had to get as far away as possible before her parents realised she was gone.  
  
 _If they realised she was gone._  
  
The trees near the edge of the woods were tall but fairly spread apart and Jongah slipped through the gaps with ease. It was late, but the sun had not yet set. Instead in hung low in the sky and cast golden shadows through the branches and leaves. Usually Junghee would stop admire them, play with them. She would run her hands the shadows and marvel at how the light pulled and distorted the shapes around her. Sometimes it seemed as though the twilight could twist even time itself. But that day she could not stop.  
  
She pushed on into the deeper part of the forest. Here the trees were thicker and the dwindling light even scarcer. It was not a part she often ventured into.  
  
However as she ventured deeper and deeper in between the trees Junghee could see a faint light. Tendrils of it curled round the trunks in her path, almost blue. It felt like light had become smoke in the way it crept towards her and wrapped her up in its faint glow. Mesmerised, Junghee followed it over fallen branch and raised root. As the light grew stronger the trees began to thin until abruptly they stopped, widening into a clearing bathed in the cool glow.  
  
In the light stood a figure. It was undoubtedly female in figure, the outline showed that. As she looked on from her hiding place behind one of the great trees Junghee realised that this woman was completely naked. She could see the curve of her breasts, the swell of her backside and the bow of her neck as clearly as she could see the colour of the stranger’s nipples and lips. She felt her cheeks become hot. Never had Junghee seen a woman naked. She had seen her nanny when she was little, fat, ungainly nanny, but never a young woman like herself.  
  
She stumbled backwards, surprised and embarrassed. The woman turned towards her. Her face was beautiful, just like the rest of her – high cheekbones and wide, staring eyes, lips plump and pink. Junghee wanted to touch them.  
  
The woman tilted her head and Junghee was once again startlingly aware of her nakedness. The figure seemed not to even notice, unabashed and unashamed, and Junghee found herself looking downwards, downwards to a firm, flat stomach and softly curving thighs and a pair of bare lips to be kissed.  
  
Junghee looked up hurriedly. Her thoughts were frightening to her. They raced like wild antelope – too quick to catch or make sense of – and bit as would a wolf after a week of hunger. Junghee had never wanted to kiss anyone before that moment, boy or girl, but here in the woods she found herself thinking of what it would be to feel those lips pressed against hers.  
  
The stranger smiled then. She walked – no glided – over to where Junghee lay prone on the ground and crouched down at her side, head cocked as would an owl when it saw something interesting. Junghee blushed. Up close she could see the way the creature – for it was now more than apparent that this woman could be no mortal being – the creature’s skin was dappled like the shadow of leaves in the summer sun, warm and cool at the same time.  
  
“Hello, child.”  
  
Junghee gasped. The creature’s voice was light and soft like the breeze flowing through silk. The words were pronounced strange, a wandering cadence lilted through perhaps like the Chinese she had been forced to learn as a child but yet stranger still. Less harsh, running water rather than breathing fire.  
  
“Did I frighten you?” The woman had laughed then, high and airy; her eyes curved upwards as she smiled and two dimples appeared at the corner of her mouth. Junghee thought in that moment that she had never seen anything so beautiful.  
  
“Come, now. Don’t be afraid.” It said.  
  
“I’m not scared.” Junghee whispered back, very aware that she was telling a lie. She was afraid, but it wasn’t the lady in the woods she was afraid of. The creature laughed again. This time Junghee’s eyes were drawn to how it reverberated through her body and made her flesh move – the shaking of her shoulders, the gentle bounce of her breasts – and her face grew hot.  
  
“Do you want to kiss me child?” The spirit breathed across Junghee’s lips. This close Junghee can make out the green flecks in her brown eyes and the spatter of freckles across her nose. It’s mesmerising. She barely registered that she had been asked a question, too busy studying the other’s face. Would her skin be soft like fur or rough like bark? Would her lips be dry like earth or wet like a pebble in a brook?  
  
A pair of lips against her own. Smooth, soft. Comfortingly so, like well-worn leather.  
  
Junghee pushed the creature off with a cry. Furiously she scrubbed her lips with the back of her hand. The sprite started laughing once more, and suddenly the jiggling of her breasts did not seem beautiful as before but obscene, tainted. Junghee stared, horrified. Then with another cry of shame she scrambled to her feet and took off as fast as her legs could carry her back out the way she came, far away from the now seemingly mocking laughter.  
  
“My name is Ying, young one!” That same strange voice called from behind her. “Do not forget me!”  
  
Junghee ignored it. She did not stop running until she saw the gap in the tree and her messy, wild garden through it. Her clothes were torn in the mad scramble to get away, her arms littered with scratches from the branches but Junghee didn’t feel the cuts.  
  
She quickly clambered up the trellis that lead to her bedroom, panting and out of breath. She climbed inside the window and tore off her ruined top and shorts, quickly stuffing them deep inside her closet where no one would think to look, before hastily pulling on her pyjamas and all but throwing herself onto the bed. She lay there a while, heart and thoughts racing. It seemed silly now to be so scared, now that she was back in her room with the bunny wallpaper and her plushies lining the bed, and soon a drowsiness came over her and she fell, inexorably, into slumber.  
  
Xxx  
  
The next day Junghee awoke disorientated. It felt like something had happened, something big, but she couldn’t remember what. She knew she had slept fitfully, awoken with random flashes of dream-memories bright behind her eyes – running through the forest, dappled shade and a soft brush of something against her lips – but it was never more than fragments. She eyed her running away bag, still packed in the corner of her room and sighed. Only two more years.  
  
xxx  
  
In fact she thinks nothing of that night for years and years, not until the time has come to finally move out of her parents’ house for good. She’s moving in with her girlfriend, a Chinese upperclassman she met at the university dance club, and has come to go through all her old stuff before her parents throw it all out. Honestly it’s a bit embarrassing going over the old toys and the useless junk she kept for what seems like no reason at all while her girlfriend looks on, cooing occasionally when they find something cute like photos of Junghee as a kid.  
  
She’s cleaning out the back of her cupboard, glad that they might finally be somewhere near done, when she pulls out a pile of ratty, torn clothes. Confused, she turns them over in her hands. Her favourite top and shorts from when she was a teenager. She had wondered where those went to. They are covered in dust and dirt and it makes her frown.  
  
“What’s that?” Her girlfriend asks, intrigued.  
  
“I don’t know.” She replies slowly. “My old clothes, I guess.”  
  
“You gunna keep them? They look pretty torn up.”  
  
Junghee shrugs. “Probably not. They aren’t important.” She balls them up and throws them into the bag they’ve designated as a bin.  
  
“Cool! And we’re all done!” Her girlfriend smiles, dimples popping out as she does so. She’s so cute. How did Junghee get so lucky?  
  
“Love you.” She says dopily.  
  
Her girlfriend laughs and punches her playfully in the arm. “What’s gotten into you today?”  
  
“Did I not say it properly enough for you?” Junghee teases.  
  
“Maybe.” Her girlfriend smiles coyly at her, all dimples and eyelashes like she knows Junghee loves.  
  
“Okay then, you asked for it.” Junghee stands in her now bare room, flings her arms wide and shouts as loud as she can, “ _I love you Zhang Ying!_ ”


End file.
